To the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who is now calling on forces to routinely release information on suspects’ ethnicities – even if it ’emboldens’ racists. In the wake of a recent attack in Liverpool, Sir Mark Rowley has urged police to be ‘realistic’ about handling information surrounding a crime and has made the case for earlier release of personal details given the number of ‘half truths’ already shared online. How very interesting.
Rowley’s comments follow a furore over the information put out by the Merseyside Police force about the man arrested after a car ploughed into a crowd of supporters celebrating Liverpool Football Club’s record. Police announced they had taken a 53-year-old white British man into custody within hours of Monday’s attack – before swiftly receiving criticism for specifying the driver’s ethnicity. Speaking to the Beeb today, Rowley said that while the move hadn’t pleased everyone, it was the best way to address arrests going forwards. ‘We’re in such an age of citizen journalism,’ he told the Today programme, adding:
People have screenshots, phones, some content will be all over social media very, very quickly. People will be making guesses and inferences – I think in that world putting more facts out is the only way to deal with it. And if those facts generate embolden racists in some cases then we need to confront those individuals. I think trying to avoid truths when half truth is in the public domain is going to be quite difficult going forward.
And it transpires that the Law Commission has been approached by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to fast-track a review of contempt of court guidance – which prohibits the police from sharing some information about suspects in case it prejudices a trial – to prevent misinformation about suspects spreading like it did in the case of the Southport killer last summer. The decision to examine the rulebook also comes after policing bodies flagged concerns that the rules as they currently stand risk leaving a vacuum that could be filled by ‘unchecked misinformation and disinformation’. The commission will advise ministers about what intelligence police forces should be allowed to publish this autumn. Stay tuned…
